Mandatory driving school gouging the poor

   Quebec's provincial government has quietly passed laws that will suck $1,000 from your pocket for something which costs zero in other provinces such as Ontario, Alberta and British Colombia.

   Since January 2010 Quebec requires all drivers to take driving lessons in order to get their first license, a cost well-beyond what many families and immigrants can pay. 

  Other provinces haven't seen skyrocketing accident rates without the lessons, nonetheless Quebec has been zealous in its crazy increasing of driving restrictions. 

   In 2009 Quebec doubled the amount of road time and theory time required to get a license, so much to the delight of driving schools, a $450 course suddenly ballooned to about $1,000 with a time-sucking 24 hours of theory and 15 hours on the road:
  Fact is, $1,000 is a lot of money for people and 39 hours is a massive time-suck unless they're training you to be Michael Schumacher or something.

   Imagine you're an immigrant who wants to deliver pizzas to support your kids, you're in tough luck because without one thousand dollars cash you can't even think of driving legally. 

   Or you're the farmer with six kids to feed and you need them to drive around to get supplies and to their various places. That will cost you a punishing $6,000 that you wouldn't have to pay a cent for in other provinces.

   So when a few companies came in to ease the pressure, offering more sensibly-priced for possibly less-real-training they were exposed in a self-glamorizing report in the Journal de Montreal (you can guess that other driving schools narced these guys out) and those places were shut down by the province. 

   Typical case of solving a problem that doesn't exist while ignoring the real fact that people can't afford $1,000 to get a drivers license.

   The province has ordered driving school operators to charge no more than $825 for a course. 

   So the $825 is the maximum they are allowed to charge by law. So what do they charge? With books, taxes and other fees, it's over $1,000 in most places. If you miss lessons, you'll get gouged even more.

   In fact, after calling around to countless places across the island, it sure starts to sound like there's price-fixing going on. 

   When I brought this to the attention of one receptionist, she told me that they were ordered by law to charge $825. In fact, they are ordered by law to charge no more than $825. 

   I brought this to the attention of the provincial bureaucrat in charge of this dossier, Francois Remillard and he said that other expenses are not allowed to be excessive. He told me that he invites people to complain.

   I'm generally a supporter of the Liberal government because I'd sooner have my fingernails get pulled out than have the dreaded Parti Quebecois elected to power, but I would vote for a party that was less-inclined to keep this nanny state nonsense going on as it is.  

   Here's a list of some of the places around Montreal and what they charge, taxes and books included.

 Lauzon & Morty's, about $1,007,. Access Driving School in Beaconsfield $1006,  Montreal City Motor League $1005, Chateauguay Driving Academy, $998, Eureka Driving School $948, Omega 5709 Côte-des-Neiges, $943, Top Driving School 6420 Victoria Ave $899, Carthage Driving School, Centre St. $827,  Mont-Royal 360 Avenue du Mont-Royal East $980,  Amel Slama 3300 Rosemont $810, Pro-Expert 4867 Jean Talon E $855, Tecnic Varennes $1000, Lachine Driving Academy $998, 

Access Driving School Beaconsfield, $1006,  Eureka Driving School 3173 St. James $948, Tecnic Driving School 5173 Cote-des-Neiges $907. 

    Only one or two offered a price under $800, which is still ridiculously high, Paul Driving School 4781 Avenue Van Horne #200... $750